The Complex
by Silverflare07
Summary: Takes place right after Guide to DD and TLD. Ned and Moze talk about kisses, the sky, and where they go from here, and Ned finds out something about Moze he didn't know before! .implied NedMozeness.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own NDSSG, I honestly don't. Otherwise we would have gotten more than three seasons, and Ned and Moze would have dated all throughout the last one.

**Complex:**A fixed idea; an obsessive notion: _The thing I have with writing fluffy oneshots..._

The complex I give Moze...I really have it. There just is no other explaination for me and my obsessions..._  
_

oOoOo

She was outside right now. But then again, why wouldn't she be? Whenever something was bothering her she always went to her backyard. She would lie down in the grass and stare up at the sky until she knew the answer to her problem. Or, at least knew a little better about how she felt about the situation at hand. He could remember countless nights when she was having school or boy troubles (the latter always gave him a funny feeling in his stomach that he refused to analyze) that she would lie out there for hours. He would always join her shortly after realizing that she was there, it was his duty as her best friend and next door neighbor to make sure that she was okay. He didn't know if he could go to her tonight though. Tonight was so much more different than any of the other nights that had come before.

Tonight, he was the problem she was trying to figure out.

Or, rather, their kiss was. _Kisses_ actually, for there had been two. The first one honestly had been an accident. She and Suzie had been wearing the same dress after all, and Jock was supposed to have been Moze's date. He had made what felt like the most logical decision. The girl by herself was his date, Suzie Crabgrass. Only...it hadn't been. It had been Moze. He had kissed Moze. Just grabbed her, spun her around, and connected his lips with her in, what should have been, the romantic move that would make Suzie Crabgrass swoon.

All it had done to Moze was freak her out.

That had been last night. After the dance, he and Moze had gotten a ride home from his mother, but it had been the most uncomfortable car ride of his life. He and Moze hadn't even been able to look at each other, let alone speak to each other. He had been able to see his mother eyeing them strangely from the front seat, but thankfully she hadn't asked any questions. He could understand her confusion though. Normally when he and Moze were together they couldn't stop talking about one thing or another. And the rare cases where they were silent were never awkward. He had never shared an awkward moment with Moze in his life before that.

If the car ride home had been awkward, then the last day of school had been insane. It had been ten times worse at school where he was supposed to hide this huge _thing_ from everyone and interact with Moze like nothing was wrong. But every time he looked at her his stomach started to churn and he forgot about everything but the look on her face when he'd pulled away the night before. But everything had been straightened out in the end. Suzie understood that it had been an honest mistake and that neither he nor Moze had meant to hurt her in any way. In some ways, it seemed like the perfect way to end the school year, with everything falling into place like that. They'd even been able to joke about it.

_It was like kissing a wall!_

Ned had never kissed a wall before, but he was pretty sure walls did not kiss like Moze. He had to admit; even Suzie Crabgrass didn't kiss like Moze. Her comment about a wall that didn't know how to kiss had kind of hurt, but he had to wonder if it wasn't just a cover up for her own hurt at his wall comment. He of all people knew that underneath her tough tomboy exterior Moze really could be hurt pretty easily by the right people. He and her parents were the first people to spring to mind.

_We could do it again and I wouldn't feel a thing!_

She had agreed. And that was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And, because it was the truth, the whole and complete truth, they'd kissed again. As if to prove a point, except there had been no one around to prove it to except themselves. He hadn't meant to kiss her. When he'd told her he wouldn't feel a thing he had thought he meant it. The little voice in the back of his head that he blamed on the Shakespeare they had been studying, the one that whispered 'me thinks he doth protest too much', had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he found himself leaning forward at the same time as Moze did. The jolt of electricity that surged through his body –one entirely different than he'd experienced last night- was just his body's way of warning him that he was doing something that was going to lead to more awkwardness between him and his best friend.

They'd broken apart, both unable to look away or speak, and he wasn't sure what exactly he wanted to do. He was only vaguely aware of Cookie sliding into the seat between them. He'd wondered later on if Cookie had seen anything, but decided it was safe to assume that he hadn't. Cookie would have already called and confronted him if he had seen anything like _that_. Especially since he'd known about him accidently kissing Moze the previous evening.

And now there Moze was, barely ten feet away, and yet, he had never felt farther from his best friend in his entire life. The sound of a front door slamming brought Ned out his thoughts. He turned and could just make out the figure of Mr. Mosley carrying a pack to the car. That was right. Moze and her family were going out of town, taking some time to go and visit some distant relatives. With all the craziness of the past day he'd completely forgotten that he was losing his best friend for two weeks. He felt a knot in his stomach as he realized that it might be for a lot longer than that if they didn't get this figured out before she left. Something like this was just too big to let sit and fester for two weeks.

Without realizing what he was doing, he'd opened his back door and made his way towards the fence that separated their yards. He made it to spot his father had cut away at before he realized he was out of the house. After Ned had nearly broken his arm trying to jump over the fence a few years ago, both his father and Moze's had taken a saw and sawed the top half of the wooden fence away in one spot, about a quarter of the way down so that neither child would injure themselves again. Ned had long outgrown the need for the lowered fence, but he still used it every time. He hesitated, looking into the Mosley's backyard, but he knew it was too late now. Moze more than likely already knew he was there, and turning back now would just lead to another awkward conversation. He'd had enough of those to last a lifetime though.

So, steeling himself for what was bound to be their most important talk to date, he jumped over the fence and landed with a soft thump in the Mosley's back yard.

He walked over to the form of his best friend and plopped down ungracefully next to her.

"Hey." She whispered, not even removing her gaze from the stars above.

"Hey." He whispered back, falling onto his back and turning his eyes to the skies above. He was willing to bet that she was naming all the constellations in her head at that very moment. It was something their parents had done with both of them when they were younger. "We...need to talk." He finally told her after a long stretch of silence.

Beside him, he could feel her nod. "Yeah, I think we do."

They were both quiet and subdued, nothing like they normally were around each other. It was sort of unnerving and Ned could barely deal with it. "You never did tell me why you always come outside to think." He blurted out, desperate to say something, _anything_ that would stall their inevitable talk, even for just a few minutes.

Moze was silent for a few moments before answering. "I like to look at the sky, especially at night." Ned was silent, urging her to continue. "It makes me feel smaller and reminds me that I'm not in control of everything that happens in my life."

Ned nodded, understanding the feeling of being small all to well. "Most people find that scary though." He told her.

Moze nodded. "I know. Sometimes, I do too. But usually, it's comforting. It reminds me that even though I feel like I'm doing everything there's so much more out there than just me. It makes my problems seem a lot more simple."

Ned smiled. "That's an interesting way to look at it. And a good one."

"Yeah." He could just make out Moze's smile in the moonlight. "It always helps to remind me that no matter what's going on in my life, the sky hasn't come crashing down around me. It's comforting, I guess. To be able to look at the stars in the sky and remember that I'm not alone. I've always got my parents and Cookie... and you."

Ned sat up at that, resting his arms on his knees. "No matter what happens between us Moze, you'll always be my best friend."

Moze smiled and sat up as well, mirroring his position. "Thanks. I know that, I do..." She looked up at the sky again. "But sometimes everything just seems so complicated."

Ned nodded, understanding completely. There was a certain pressure that you felt when your best friend was an attractive member of the opposite sex. He'd completely forgotten that Moze probably felt it too. "We've always managed to get through everything before this," he tried to smile in reassurance. "We'll get through this one too."

"Why do you think we did it?" He blinked and she must have seen the confused look on his face because she elaborated. "Kissed that second time, I mean. Why do you think we did that?"

Ned looked up at the sky, hoping it would have the answer, because he sure didn't. "Maybe it was just something we needed to do." He said finally, choosing his words carefully. "Maybe after that whole rumor about us dating and then the thing with the yearbook..." He smiled at the memories; they'd seemed so insignificant at the time. "Maybe we just needed to try it once."

"Or twice." She said, and it may have been his imagination, but he thought he saw the corners of her lips turn up in a playful smile.

"No," He corrected, shaking his head. "Just once. Once as Ned and Moze. Not Ned and Moze who he thought was actually Suzie Crabgrass."

Moze actually laughed a little at that and Ned felt infinitely better. "So I guess we really will be okay."

Ned nodded. "Of course we will. You and me?" He threw a friendly arm around her shoulder, giving her a squeeze. "We can make it through anything."

Moze smiled softly and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Thanks," She turned back to the sky. "For a little while tonight, I wasn't sure if you were going to come. If I had been you I think I would have been afraid to."

Ned threw her a grin even though she couldn't see it. "I will always come, Moze. Just like I know that you would have come too. That's just what best friends do."

"Thank you." She told him, smiling sincerely. "You know..." She added shyly, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "You don't really kiss like a wall."

Ned laughed out loud at that. "Neither do you Moze," He grinned. "Neither do you.

Moze grinned and jumped up, brushing the grass off her pants. "Come on," She extended her hand and pulled him up. "Let's go inside and watch a movie. I'm leaving for two weeks in the morning after all."

Ned grinned. "Movies, videogames, and pizza." He confirmed as they began walking towards her back door. "What movie should we watch?"

She thought about it for a moment. "The third Harry Potter movie."

Ned turned to his friend, laughter dancing in his eyes. "Again?"

Moze shrugged, doing her best not to laugh. "What can I say? It's my favorite one."

"Why?" Ned asked, bumping her shoulder with his own playfully, "because of all of Harry and Hermione's alone on-screen time?"

He could see Moze grin guilty in the porch light. "You caught me." She laughed. "I guess I just have this thing where best friends get together. It's a complex, I swear."

He could see her visibly freeze a few seconds after the words left her mouth, as if she was just realizing who she'd let that secret slip to. He smiled, her words sending a strange warmth through him although he wasn't sure why. "The third Harry Potter movie it is!" He opened her back door and held it open so that she could step through. "I'll even let you do your girly squeal when they're hiding from Lupin in werewolf form."

Moze eyed him strangely, although he wasn't entirely sure if it was because of what he'd just said or because he was holding the door open for her. "Why?"

Ned grinned. "Oh, I dunno." He looked up at her and blue eyes met brown. "I guess I've just got this thing for best friends getting together too."

oOoOo

Oh dear lord, I can't believe I actually wrote this. I got the idea absolute ages ago! We're talking when DD and TLD first aired and finally decided to sit down and write it...almost a year later.

I always thought it was kind of odd how they were so awkward at the end of the Last Day, but by the time the new season rolled around it was like nothing had ever happened. I said to myself, they must have had a talk or something. You don't just magically get over something like that and suddenly everything is the same as it always was. Their dynamic didn't start to change until much later in season 3 too, (I mean Moze was practically throwing girls at him when Suzie moved away and she honestly didn't seem even the tiniest bit jealous) so I figured they couldn't have had too much of a revealing talk.

I'm sorry if they're horribly OoC, but they were kind of supposed to be a little bit. I don't care who you are, when you randomly kiss your best friend, twice, you're going to need to handle it. And considering their personalities, I don't think I was too off base on how they might have handled it. Ned's proven to be pretty mature when he needs to be and so has Moze.

Okay, I'm going to stop rambling now! Thanks for reading!


End file.
